San Francisco Pedicabbers Pick Up Speed

At $10 per passenger per mile, pedicabbing can be a lucrative job during the high tourism season, which unofficially kicks off on Memorial Day. After paying rent on the cab for the day — which can vary from $25 to as high as $200 on high-demand days — pedicabbers are free to keep the rest for profit.

Jordan Polythress came to San Francisco from North Carolina a few months ago for his dream job: ferrying tourists around on a bike taxi. It may not sound sexy, but he likes it more than his previous jobs as a Christmas tree harvester, a white water rafter and combat medic in the Army Reserve.

Mission resident Polythress is one of hundreds of pedicabbers in San Francisco that work as contractors for one of three companies — San Francisco Pedicabs, Cabrio Taxi and Golden Gate Pedicab.

“When you break it down, all we are doing [is] moving people around in our tricycles,” he said. “But we like it.”

Read the full story and watch Mission Local videos of Polythress and other pedicabbers sharing horror stories and explaining what it’s like to be a pedicabber in San Francisco.